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ABOUT MONEY 



About Money 

TALKS TO 
CHILDREN 



PERRY WAYLAND SINKS 

AUTHOR OF 
'POPULAR AMUSEMENTS AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE," ETC. 




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Chicago New York Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London & Edinburgh 
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1903 


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XXc. No. 


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COPYRIGHT, 19 


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BY FLEMING 


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REVELL COMPANY | 


November 


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TYPOGRAPHY BY 

MABSH, AITKEN & CURTIS COMPANV 

CHICAGO, ILL. 



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CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Getting Money 13 

Spending Money . . , . . .27 

Sharp Bargains . . . . . 43 

The Poor Poor 55 

The Poor Rich 65 

The Rich Poor ...... 77 

The Rich Rich 95 



TO TWO WOMEN 

WHO HAVE BLESSED THE AUTHOR'S LIFE 

I DEDICATE THIS BOOKLET 

TO THE 

MOTHER NOW IN HEAVEN 

TO THE 

WIFE STILL BY MY SIDE 



FOREWORD 

There Is no one thought that is earlier 
or more continually brought to our notice 
as we go through life — and increasingly at 
the present time — than that of money. 
Money is one of the earliest conceptions 
impressed upon the mind of the child as it 
is one of the most pertinacious of the after 
years. Think as we may money is a great 
ruling force of this age. Few persons will 
allow, indeed, the appropriateness of the 
term, "the almighty dollar," but all do 
concede its modified form, "the mighty dol- 
lar." "Never in the history of the world," 
says a well-known living preacher, "were 
the people grasping for golden baubles in 
the market-place as they are to-day." 
It has been said, "The heraldry of 
America Is based on greenbacks." In view 
of this widespread and, we think, growing 
emphasis placed upon money, and of the 
tremendous influence of money for good 
and bad, for this world and the world to 



8 FOREWORD 

come, it has seemed to us that the years 
of childhood and youth are the specially 
appropriate time when correct notions 
should be instilled and right principles 
inculcated. There are many reasons for 
this conclusion. We mention only one — that 
these are the character-forming years. In 
accordance with this conception and with a 
desire to win larger numbers of the children 
to the sanctuary by giving to them their 
"portion," we have brought to the boys and 
girls of our own congregation the themes 
which, in the pages of this little book, and 
with as little change as was practicable, are 
offered to the consideration of the young 
scattered abroad, with our sincere and 
prayerful greetings. 

PERRY WAYLAND SINKS. 

RiDGWAY, Pa. 



(Settino ^one^ 



GETTING MONEY 

At the beginning of this series of talks in 
which money is to be the principal thought 
it is very fitting to ask, What is money? and 
How came money into use? One answer to 
the question, What is money? — and a correct 
one — is. Money is "any material that by 
agreement serves as a common medium of 
exchange and measure of value in trade" 
{Standard Dictionary). We may give as a 
shorter and simpler definition, "Money is 
that with which we buy things, or that with 
which we pay our debts." What man has 
used as money throughout human history 
has depended upon when and where he has 
lived. 

How money came into use calls up a long 
but interesting history. Whenever we use 
the word money we think of bank notes, 
gold, and silver, or the materials out of 
which our money is made. But none of our 
money, in the form it is used, has been in 

13 



14 ABOUT MONEY 

existence very long. Various kinds of met- 
als were in use as money long before our 
government was thought of or our country 
had been discovered. In the former part of 
the first book of the Bible an account is 
given of Abraham buying a field from one 
of the ancient HIttite people to use as a 
burying-place for his dead, where he and his 
family were afterward burled. The price 
which he paid for this field, we are told, was 
"four hundred shekels of silver, current 
money with the merchant"; this amount 
being weighed out to Ephron the HIttite in 
payment for the field of Machpelah. This 
was In Abraham's day, and he lived almost 
four thousand years ago, or nearly as long 
before Christ came as we are living since he 
came. Silver was then in use as money. 
"Shekel" was first used as a weight, but the 
term came to be a name for an actual 
coin. Later on gold came into use as 
money. Gold and silver of the earlier Bible 
times were used mostly in an uncoined con- 
dition. Other things than precious metals 
have been and still are used as money. 
What is money differs In different coun- 



GETTING MONEY 15 

tries and at different times. The ancient 
Midianites carried their wealth with them in 
the form of chains, bracelets, earrings and 
tablets. The money used by the sons of 
Jacob when they went to buy corn in Egypt 
was probably in form of rings having each a 
distinctive value. Caesar tells us that the 
Gauls used for money gold and iron rings of 
certain weight. In some parts of Africa a 
cheap kind of cotton cloth is used as money; 
one can buy anything the people have to 
sell with it. In some of the islands of the 
Pacific Ocean what is used as money is a 
certain kind of shell or strings of these 
shells. In a similar manner beads made of 
the inner parts of various kinds of shells 
and strung on threads or woven into pat- 
terns were once used among the Indians of 
this country as money. This was called 
wampum. In Burmah, lead is still used as 
money. The various metals — iron, copper, 
nickel, silver and gold— separately or in 
combination have long and widely been 
used as money. Other things, too, than 
metals or shells have been taken as a means 
of exchange of values. The money of a 



1 6 ABOUT MONEY 

country changes with its changing civiliza- 
tion or with its political history. 

As the nations are coming closer together 
and are on better terms with one another it 
is becoming easier all the while to exchange 
the money of one country into that of 
another or for the goods of another. Gold 
and silver are now the almost universal 
medium of exchange. We may think of 
many reasons why they are adapted to 
become the basis for world-wide use as 
money. 

But probably most of us, both old and 
young, are much more interested about get- 
ting and having money than we are about 
how our money systems have come into 
existence. We believe that there is no one 
desire which is more general among all 
people than is this, to get money. But how 
shall money be gotten? Or what principles 
or rules ought to guide and govern both old 
and young in the desire and e*ffort to get 
money? Money we all know does not grow 
on trees or in the ground, yet what grows 
on trees and in and from the ground may 
bring money. We may get money, too, 



GETTING MONEY 17 

from other things than those that grow. 
Things that we may make and things 
obtained on land and in sea may be the 
source of money. What we may do also 
brings money. So that money may be got- 
ten in a great many ways, and in wrong as 
well as in right ways. Many people think, 
perhaps, that money gotten in wrong ways 
will buy as much as though it were gotten in 
right ways. Maybe it will, but I do not 
think it will be so apt to be kept or used for 
the best as will be the money gotten in right 
ways. Do you? I can tell you how some 
people gei money in what seems to me 
wrong ways: 

Some by keeping a saloon. By selling 
drink, they get money in a way that robs chil- 
dren of bread and clothes, makes men cruel, 
quarrelsome and sometimes insane, and leads 
them to commit all sorts of disorder and 
crimes. This is one way of getting money 
and getting it faster and easier and with less 
intelligence than it can be gotten by selling 
bread or anything else we need. This is 
about the worst way in the world to get 
money. And it makes no difference as to 



i8 ABOUT MONEY 

the wrong of it whether it is legally or ille- 
gally gotten. What is legally right may be 
morally wrong. ''It is illegal," says one, "to 
keep a gambling hell; it may be profitable 
to do so, but it is pandering to a violent pas- 
sion, and the employment is unmoral even 
if it is conducted with the most scrupulous 
regard to honesty." No one who wants to 
do right will consent to get money in any 
illegal or unmoral or immoral way. 

Some get money by cheating. They sell, 
it maybe, good, useful and necessary things, 
but not in an honest way. They make the 
quantity or the weight of what they sell a 
little less than what it ought to be, v/ith the 
intention to keep back a little of what they 
get pay for. You know that there are six- 
teen ounces in a pound of provisions or gro- 
ceries — well, if a grocer gives only fifteen or 
fifteen and a half ounces instead of sixteen 
for a pound of what he sells he gets pay for 
an ounce or for half an ounce more than he 
gives out. If he does this intentionally he is 
cheating. If the huckster sells you a basket 
of apples and says that they are like those 
nice ones on the top, all the way down to 



GETTING MONEY 19 

the bottom, when they are not, but are 
small and runty, he is cheating. He misrep- 
resents for the sake of selling. Then some 
cheat by saying what is not true about their 
goods in order to keep a customer from 
going elsewhere. Some storekeepers buy a 
worthless article, or one not so good as 
some other merchants have for sale, and 
say, it is "just the same," or "just as good," 
when they know it is not; that is cheating 
and cheating is nearly as bad as stealing. 
This is a wrong way to get money. 

Some get money by betting and gam- 
bling. These means of getting money are 
on the increase in our country, and we 
ought to be looking up the cause for this 
increase. It may be that the start of bet- 
ting and gambling is to be found in or near 
the homes of good people. Playing mar- 
bles "for keeps," and with the sanction or 
knowledge of parents, may be the begin- 
ning place for betting and gambling for 
larger "stakes" later on. Agricultural fairs 
are good institutions, or used to be, but 
when they give opportunity for all sorts of 
gaming and betting devices good people will 



20 ABOUT MONEY 

have nothing more to do with them. I like 
to see a nice horse, and I like to see him go, 
and I do not believe there is any advantage, 
unless you want to look at the scenery, in 
taking ten minutes to go a mile when you 
might go it in three. But when a man says, 
"This horse of mine can go faster than your 
horse can, and I'll bet you a hundred dollars 
that he can," and the man to whom he 
speaks "takes him up," as they say, they 
both are betting on a horse, and are in 
a fair way to gambling. Charles Kingsley, 
the novelist, once wrote to his son concern- 
ing the English races, into which the son 
was venturing: "There is a matter which 
gave me much uneasiness when you men- 
tioned it. You said you had put into some 
lottery for the Derby, and had hedged to 
make it safe. Now all that is bad, bad, 
nothing but bad. Of all habits it grows 
most on eager minds. Success and loss 
alike make it grow," To get money in 
either of these ways is wrong, for one or the 
other gets nothing for the money he gives. 
Gambling throughout is the attempt to 
acquire something for nothing by a lucky 



GETTING MONEY 21 

venture or, more often, by trickery or decep- 
tion. 

Speculation Is another channel in which 
fortunes are won. How far speculation is 
honorable and right is a question upon 
which there are various opinions. Certain 
it is, as The Outlook has recently observed, 
speculation is "a temptation that more and 
more constantly, with the development of 
our exchanges, confronts men of the very 
finest type of business life." Mr. Carnegie, 
in his book The Empire of Business, regards 
speculation as the second of three supreme 
perils to business success, and asserts: 
"There is scarcely an instance of a man who 
has made a fortune by speculation and kept 
it. Gamesters die poor, and there is cer- 
tainly not an instance of a speculator who 
has lived a life creditable to himself or 
advantageous to the community." This is 
a sweeping arraignment but is entitled to 
thoughtful consideration by the young. 

Some by stealing. The young man knows 
there is money in the cash drawer, watches 
his chance and takes it — maybe a little at a 
time. The thief knows that your parents 



22 ABOUT MONEY 

are away from home, he breaks into the 
house and takes the silverware and jewelry 
and sells what he gets to somebody who 
doesn't ask any questions. Thus these get 
money by stealing. Those who get money 
in this way are almost certain, sooner or 
later, to come to some bad end. 

And some get money by oppressing the 
poor and in other and unjust ways. There 
are those who never stop to ask what is right, 
or fair, or just, whose whole aim is to get 
money, no matter how. Their motto seems 
to be, "Get money; get it honestly if you 
can, but get it." The Golden Rule has 
been modified too frequently to read, "Do 
unto others as you have the power to 
do." These, and other channels are 
wrong ways of getting money. No good 
person, no one who regards his fellow men, 
will want to get money by any of these 
ways. And it does not save such from 
blame that they do good with the money 
gotten wrongfully. 

There is one other way to get money of 
which we would speak; it is to get it hon- 
estly, by fair and honorable means, by giv- 



GETTING MONEY 23 

ing a just exchange for it whether it be in 
service of any sort or in goods of any kind. 
Generally this is the surest way to get 
money, for people soon come to know who 
are honest and who are not. In the long 
run it does not pay to get money dishon- 
estly or unjustly. You may not get money 
so fast, nor so much of it, by getting it only 
in right ways, but you will be more apt to 
keep it, and you will enjoy it more when 
you do get it. 

There are many separate channels in the 
right way of getting money. Everything 
we eat, wear, use and enjoy — clothes, books, 
pictures, tools, things about the home, store 
and street, and all the varied lines of serv- 
ice, occupations, pursuits and professions — ■ 
are honest channels of getting money to 
some one, or to all. There is a chance for 
every person who is able to work to get 
money honestly, and no one needs to do the 
mean and bad things that men — and women, 
too, sometimes — resort to in order that they 
may get money. 

The ends or purposes for which people 
strive to get money are many and diverse. 



24 ABOUT MONEY 

These are expressed In the mottoes of 
money-seekers. The vain man's motto is, 
"Get money and wear it"; the generous 
man's, "Get money and share it" ; the miser's, 
"Get money and hoard it"; the profli- 
gate's, "Get money and spend it"; the 
broker's, "Get money and lend it"; the 
gambler's, "Get money and lose it"; the 
wise man's, "Get money and use it." Imi- 
tate the wise man's example, and get all the 
money you can — ever and only honestly — 
and then use it in a wise and prudent way. 



Spenbing UDonev 



SPENDING MONEY 

It Is about as difficult a thing to do, and 
requires fully as much wisdom and judg- 
ment to spend money well as it does to get 
money — sometimes it requires even more. 
No doubt it is true, as somebody has said, 
that the great art of getting rich lies more 
in knowing how to spend money judiciously 
than in how to save it carefully. The 
estimate of one who has given away millions 
is that it is "more difficult to conscientiously 
distribute wealth than to acquire it." And 
the way one spends his money is far more 
an indication of his character than is how 
he gets or saves his money. 

If I were to ask. What is money for? I 
would not be at all surprised if some one 
were to ansv/er, "To spend." And this 
answer would not be so far wrong either, 
for money is to spend. 

Certainly money is not to eat. To be sure 
you can get what is good to eat with money, 

but money is not a food. The story is told 

27 



28 ABOUT MONEY 

of an Arab who was very hungry, almost 
starved, who found a bag which he thought 
had food in it, but which, when he opened it, 
he found out to his great regret had noth- 
ing in it but money, and he threw it down 
in disgust. You have heard the fable of 
Midas. He asked his god, as the fable has 
it, that whatever he might touch should be 
changed into gold. His prayer was granted. 
He first plucked a twig from an oak tree; it 
became gold in his hand. He took up a 
stone; it changed to gold. He picked an 
apple from a tree; it became a golden 
apple. When he got home he ordered his 
servants to set a splendid dinner on the 
table. He then found, to his horror, that 
when he touched bread it hardened in his 
hand to gold, and when he put it to his 
mouth he could not bite it. He took a 
glass of wine, but it flowed down his throat 
like melted gold. He was filled with a fear 
of starvation, and went to his god with all 
haste and asked him to take back his gift. 
Over in China, as we have learned lately, 
when a prominent man is condemned, and 
has to be executed, he sometimes kills him- 



SPENDING MONEY 29 

self by eating gold leaf. I suppose the gold 
leaf becomes poison, or else it contains 
poison. No kind of money would be good 
food. 

Money is not to keep. While one ought 
not to be too anxious to spend the money 
he gets, so anxious as to be a spendthrift, 
and one should strive to always have some 
money "by" him for the special needs that 
are always liable to come, yet he ought 
never to have a desire to keep all he gets. 
That is miserly. A miser may be a success 
as a miser, but not as a man. If everybody 
were to lock up their money, or hide it where 
no one could find it, and thus keep it safely, 
it would not do anybody a bit of good^ I 
was talking with a man lately who was up in 
Alaska last summer, and who was telling of 
the large quantity of gold there is in that 
far-away part of our country; but all that 
gold which has been hidden away through 
the centuries, millions of dollars' worth, 
"kept," has never done anybody a bit of 
good, and cannot till it is found and begins 
to be spent. In one of the parables which 
Jesus spoke He specially warned against 



30 ABOUT MONEY 

hiding away and simply keeping safely the 
money we may get. If we do that we are 
in danger of ourselves losing what we think 
we will surely keep, for no matter how 
much one may get he must leave it all 
behind when he goes out of this world. I 
read only a little while ago of a man who 
was missed from his place of busirress, and 
when he was sought by his neighbors he 
was found dead in his house, where he lived 
all alone, while about his bed were four iron 
boxes, which, when they were opened, were 
found to contain gold, silver, paper money 
and government bonds, amounting to thou- 
sands of dollars, which he had indeed kept 
securely, but which he had to leave behind. 
Money is not to love. It is a sad, sad 
thing for any man to come to love money 
more than he loves his wife, his children, 
his parents, or his friends — more than he 
loves truth and right. One of Jesus' 
apostles said, "The love of money" — not 
money itself but — "the love of money is the 
root of all evil"; and that is only another 
way of saying that out of a love of money 
grows a great many bad things. Out of the 



SPENDING MONEY 31 

love of money as a seed or root grows covet- 
ousness, thefts, extortions of the poor, vil- 
lainies and most of the vice and crime that 
spread over the earth as clouds trail across 
the sky. It is not the possession but the 
misuse of money against which the Bible 
lifts up its warning. 

Money, then, is not to eat, nor to keep, 
nor to love, but to spend — to give in 
exchange for something else that will do 
ourselves or somebody good. Benjamin 
Franklin said a long time ago, "The use of 
money is all the advantage there is in hav- 
ing money." And said Mr. Carnegie 
recently, "The best of wealth is not what it 
does for the owner, but what it enables him. 
to do for others." And there are many ways 
in which money spent judiciously will do 
good. One's money may work for him in 
ways and places where he himself can never 
go nor work. You yourself may not be able 
to go to the heathen, but the money you 
may get can send or help to send somebody 
else to tell those who are in darkness of 
Jesus and His love. Money may send will- 
ing feet up the garret stairs, down into 



32 ABOUT MONEY 

gloomy basements, over mountains and 
across seas on errands that the dear Lord 
Himself would gladly take but which He 
cannot except as money sends. 

Yes, money is to spend. And our money 
is in such forms and amounts that it can 
easily be spent. Our money is of different 
kinds — gold, silver, nickel, copper and bills 
— and is of so different values — from one 
cent up to twenty dollars in coin, and from 
one dollar up to ten thousand dollars in 
bank notes — that it can easily be spent. 
There are places where, if we were strangers, 
we could not spend money at all, could not 
even buy a dinner no matter how much we 
wanted it, if all the money we had was a 
twenty dollar gold piece. You know that 
when a five or ten dollar bill is "broken," as 
people say, how quickly and easily it goes. 
Most too easily we think sometimes when 
there are so many places and ways to 
spend it. 

But how shall we spend the money we 
get? Here is a good place for some 
"don'ts:" Don't spend money before you 
get it. Don't do this. To do this is almost 



SPENDING MONEY 33 

always a mistake. No one will ever, except 
for the very best reasons, go in debt. It is 
a great deal easier to keep from getting in 
debt than it is to get out of debt after one is 
in, as many and many a person can testify. 
One who is in debt is always at a disadvan- 
tage as compared with the one who is not. 
He who gets his money before he spends it 
has the advantage every time, and in many 
ways. And it is no wrong advantage either. 
Don't spend money uselessly. Don't 
waste or squander it upon what you do not 
need in any way. Don't think that you 
must have every nice thing you see for your 
own. Perhaps it is better that some of us 
cannot have all the nice things we would like 
to have. Perhaps if we did have many of 
the things we want but cannot have we would 
not find the delight in them we thought we 
should. Some rich parents think it is not 
the best thing to leave a fortune to their 
children, because of the danger that what 
"came easy" would "go easy," which is often 
the case, and because money obtained with- 
out one's own effort is not apt to be valued 
highly. We have known many such cases. 



34 ABOUT MONEY 

Mr. Carnegie says, "I would almost as soon 
leave a young man a curse as to burden 
him with the almighty dollar." There 
are better things for parents to leave 
their children than a large sum of money, 
which, sad to say, their children often quar- 
rel over. One thing, we think, much better 
than money is the ability to earn money by 
honest work. Another is a good education. 
A great man once told a youth to empty his 
purse into his head if he wished to keep his 
money safely; he meant that a good educa- 
tion would be the best investment he could 
make of his money. Good habits, because 
they are elements of a good character, are 
better than money. These are the things 
that will stay by one when fortune is all 
gone. 

And we ought to guard against that 
extravagance in spending money which 
ministers to sinful pride and embitters the 
poor against the rich. There is great wis- 
dom, we think, in the statement of Dr. Cun- 
ningham, when he says: "There is ample 
reason for the indignation which is felt in 
regard to luxurious expenditures of the 



SPENDING MONEY 35 

rich. When ball decorations involve an 
expenditure of / 1,000 ($5,000) on flowers 
there is an outlay which is wrong; not 
because it is unproductive consumption, but 
because it is a wrong kind of unproductive 
consumption, and it is an idle display. It is 
extravagance like this that is to blame for 
setting class against class; jealousy itself 
finds little to fasten on in the case of a 
wealthy man who uses his wealth wisely and 
well, but is aroused by evidences of extrav- 
agance and dissipation" [The Use and Abuse 
of Money, pp. 215, 216). 

Don't spend money for hurtful things. 
Don't buy at any price what will injure you 
in body, in mind, or in soul. Whoever does 
this makes a bad bargain. A long time ago 
God asked His people, "Wherefore do ye 
spend money for that which is not bread?" 
I think He meant by "bread" anything use- 
ful and needful, and that He intended by 
this question to reprove the people because 
they gave their money for things neither use- 
ful nor needful but hurtful instead. Above 
all things don't do this. Boys, if you resolve 
never to spend money for hurtful things, 



36 ABOUT MONEY 

and stick to it, you will never give money 
for vile literature, for tobacco, or for 
intoxicating drinks, and many other like 
hurtful things, because they are hurtful to 
body, mind, or soul, one or all. And if you 
do not spend money for hurtful things you 
will have all the more money to spend for 
useful and helpful things. A young fop of a 
fellow who pretended to have a great liking 
for books was once shown into the pres- 
ence of Elihu Burritt in his library, and as 
he came in he continued to puff away at a 
choice cigar, whereupon the "learned black- 
smith" remarked that a large part of his 
library represented money that might have 
been spent on tobacco. So, too, many 
another man with a small income has been 
able to get together a valuable library and 
other ennobling influences by the money 
that might have been spent in harmful ways 
or for hurtful things. One asks, "What 
clerk or workingman that spends twenty 
cents a day for cigars dreams that by this 
expenditure, with the accumulated interest, 
he will, in fifty years, have smoked away 
twenty thousand dollars?" A lawyer once 



SPENDING MONEY 37 

told me that his bill for cigars was about 
twenty dollars a month, and said he thought 
that perhaps it would be better — better for 
him personally, and a better use of that 
amount of money — to put it into the church. 
I told him I thought so, too. Many a man 
could easily send his son or daughter to col- 
lege on what he spends for tobacco. Poor 
Richard was not far wrong when he said, 
"What maintains one vice would bring up 
two children." 

But spend money, so far as you have it or 
may have it to spend, for what will be of 
use to you in some way — body, mind or soul 
— for what will add to your true enjoyment, 
or for what will do others good in some 
way, and for what will make the world 
brighter, better and happier. Let the same 
wisdom and judgment be used in spending 
as is required in getting money. The way a 
man spends his money is one of the surest 
tests of his character; not an infallible test, 
but a good test. "Any use of wealth," says 
one, "that facilitates the development of any 
kind of skill or refinement of taste has much 
to be said for it; at all events it is not wasted 



38 ABOUT MONEY 

if it promotes the cultivation of the human 
faculties, intellectual or artistic" {The Useaitd 
Abuse of Money, p. 214). One good chan- 
nel for spending money is to give it to wor- 
thy causes and to beneficent institutions, 
such as schools, hospitals, homes for the 
dependent, missions, libraries, churches. 
Money thus given is saved and helps for- 
ward the cause of truth and right. Money 
thus spent will be "treasures laid up in 
heaven." On a monument in an old ceme- 
tery there is this epitaph: "Here lies E 

who transported a large fortune to heaven 
by deeds of kindness and acts of charity, 
and has now gone thither to enjoy it." 

Not long ago I read on the inside of a 
street-car the following statement and 
injunctions: 

Two ways to do business — 

Get all you can; 

Give all you can. 

These injunctions reminded me of John 
Wesley's famous and completer rules con- 
cerning money: "Get all you can without 
hurting your soul, your body, or your neigh- 
bor. Save all you can, cutting off every 



SPENDING MONEY 39 

needless expense. Give all you can." To 
give money is often a good way — sometimes 
the best way — to spend it. The great phi- 
losopher, Bacon, once observed that a large 
fortune is of no solid use to the owner, 
except to increase his means of giving. 
Our own philosopher, Franklin, said, "The 
use of money is all the advantage there is in 
having money." Mr. Andrew Carnegie goes 
still further and says, when speaking of 
"the gospel of wealth": "It predicts that 
the day is at hand when he who dies pos- 
sessed of enormous sums, which were his 
and free to administer during his life, will 
die disgraced, and holds that the aim of the 
millionaire should be to die poor. It like- 
wise pleads for modesty of private expendi- 
ture." 



Sharp Bargafns 



SHARP BARGAINS 

There is a story of two brothers told In 
the first book of the Bible which abounds 
in lessons and warnings to every age. It is 
the story of Jacob and Esau who were twin 
brothers — the sons of Isaac and Rebekah. 
One of these sons, Esau, says of the other, 
"Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath 
supplanted me these two times: he took 
away my birthright; and, behold, now he 
hath taken away my blessing." As we thus 
see this young man Jacob with the eyes of 
Esau we get a full view of what would now 
be called a "sharper." Indeed, the name 
"Jacob" means about that — ^"supplanter." 
Jacob is famous among all Bible characters, 
and from his early life, for his grasping dis- 
position and for getting the advantage over 
others, or for striving to do so. It was only 
in his later life that he overcame this natu- 
ral bent, and then not in his own strength, 
but by help from above. Some doubt if 
this grasping disposition were Indeed over- 

43 



44 ABOUT MONEY 

come even in Jacob's later life, though It 
was then that his name was changed to 
"Israel," which means "prince with God." 
But when he was a young man, and for 
long after, he was "Jacob" — "supplanter." 

It was almost more disgrace to Jacob that 
he defrauded and cheated his own brother, 
and a twin brother at that. Twins are 
commonly very much attached to one 
another. They are usually much alike 
when they are of the same sex; often they 
are so much alike that one could easily pass 
for the other. Twins are generally very 
similar In disposition, tastes, sympathies and 
size, as well as In looks. Sometimes It Is 
almost a case of one mind with two bodies. 
But this was not the case with Jacob and 
Esau; they were very different; almost 
exact opposites. They had very little In 
common. They did not look alike and their 
tastes were different. The one liked to 
hunt; the other to stay about the tent. 
"Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the 
field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling 
in tents." Esau was the favorite of the 
father; Jacob the favorite of the mother. 



SHARP BARGAINS 45 

Their dispositions and characters were 
different: the one was free-hearted, gener- 
ous, happy-go-lucky and unsuspecting— that 
was Esau; the other was shrewd, selfish, far- 
seeing, unscrupulous — that was Jacob. 
Jacob knew when and how to "invest" for 
his own advantage; and he had no scruples 
against practicing his sharpness on his own 
twin brother — it did not matter to him how 
much he wronged his brother. 

Jacob thus is an example of a man who 
made, and who planned to make, a sharp 
bargain whenever he had the chance. In 
this Bible story Esau accuses Jacob to his 
father of having twice supplanted him, or 
of having defrauded and cheated him, twice; 
when and how? 

The first time was when Esau had been 
away on a long hunting trip, and had not 
found enough game to live on, and was 
ready to die of hunger. Jacob saw his con- 
dition, and. Instead of giving him something 
to eat, he took advantage of his brother's 
weakness to cheat him out of his only real 
possession — his birthright. The birthright 
which Jacob got from his brother Esau was 



46 ABOUT MONEY 

that special favor in a Hebrew family, which 
gave to the firstborn son particular rights 
and the first place at the death of the 
father. This belonged to Esau, but as he 
expected to die, and would have died if he 
had not gotten food, he agreed to sell his 
birthright to his brother. Jacob was sharp 
enough to know that most people when 
they think death is near are not apt to be 
much concerned about the things of this 
life, whether valuable or not. Jacob would 
not give his brother the food he craved until 
he had made sure of the birthright. All 
that Esau got for his birthright was "bread 
and pottage of lentiles," or dry bread and 
greens. This was the first sharp bargain 
Jacob made with Esau. 

The other sharp bargain he made with 
his twin brother was when Isaac, their 
father, was dying, as he believed. Isaac, 
who knew that Jacob had cheated Esau out 
of his birthright, wanted to make up some- 
what for that injustice toward his favorite 
son by giving him his special blessing. 
Jacob overheard this plan, and with the help 
of his mother took advantage of the father's 



SHARP BARGAINS 47 

falling powers and not only deceived him 
but cheated Esau of what the father 
intended for him. This was the second 
time Jacob supplanted Esau. Jacob was 
shrewd, indeed, but mean and base to wrong 
his brother and to pain and grieve his aged 
father in his dying hour. I can hardly think 
of anything meaner than this second sharp 
bargain of Jacob. Can you? 

Let us now ask what Jacob's sharp 
bargains brought to him. First of all 
they brought him a great deal of trouble, 
as they have brought trouble to many a 
man since. His defrauding or supplanting 
his brother twice awakens Esau's desire for 
revenge; he hates his brother and plans to 
kill him. Jacob flees and becomes a wan- 
derer, never again to enter that home. 
Jacob is sorely punished; and so, too, is his 
mother, who aided him in defrauding Esau 
of the fathers blessing, for the last look 
Rebekah had of her favorite son was when 
she let him out at the back door of their 
tent, and urged him to flee for his life to the 
land of Haran. 

Then, too, a person who always plans to 



48 ABOUT MONEY 

make sharp bargains will be very apt to 
have sharp bargains practiced upon him. 
If a person undertakes to get through this 
world on his great sharpness he will almost 
always find out, sooner or later, that there 
are other people as sharp or a little 
sharper than he is. I suppose that persons 
who imagine they are shrewd often get 
worsted in their very shrewdness. This was 
surely the case with Jacob. Jacob met his 
match, and more than his match, in his 
uncle Laban. Jacob loved the younger of 
Laban's two daughters, Rachel, and made 
an agreement with Laban, after the custom 
of that time, to labor for his uncle during a 
period of seven years in order to get 
Rachel for his wife. That was a long time 
to labor and wait, but it soon passed by, as 
it seemed to Jacob. The seven years 
"seemed unto him but a few days, for the 
love he had to" Rachel. But judge of 
Jacob's surprise at the end of the seven 
years to be informed by the father that he 
could not have Rachel, whom he loved, 
but must take her older sister, and that if he 
still wanted Rachel he must labor and wait 



SHARP BARGAINS 49 

another seven years. When Jacob remon- 
strated he was reminded by Laban that such 
was the rule of the trade in that country. 
Laban was sharp enough not to inform 
Jacob of this rule, or custom, until he had 
first gotten seven years of labor from him. 
More than this, Jacob suffered from the 
upbraidings of an accusing conscience. 
He lived with his troubling conscience for 
twenty years. If the bargain one makes 
sends him out to live with a reproving 
conscience it is not so "sharp" after 
all. Twenty years or more after Jacob 
defrauded Esau of the father's bless- 
ing these twin brothers met again. Jacob 
dreaded to see the face of his brother, 
because he remembered how he had 
wronged him — his conscience made him a 
coward. Jacob sent his brother a great gift 
of flocks and herds to turn aside Esau's 
anger; and then how he did pray that he 
might not suffer harm at the hands of his 
brother. He was conscience-smitten for his 
own wrong deeds. But Esau, notwithstand- 
ing the wrongs he had suffered, received 
Jacob as a brother beloved. "And ran to 



50 ABOUT MONEY 

meet him, and embraced him, and fell on 
his neck, and kissed him: and they wept." 

We do not wish to be understood as 
speaking against bargaining or business 
enterprise, but as warning against a certain 
kind of bargaining or enterprise. We need 
to distinguish between business transac- 
tions that are only far-seeing and those 
that are unscrupulous. The enterpris- 
ing spirit which seeks money in honor- 
able and right ways for the good it 
will bring and do is most commendable. 
The enterprising spirit that gets money, or 
seeks to get money, regardless of the means 
employed, is reprehensible. Says a living 
American preacher, "We are animals when 
we live only to get." Emerson said,"Industry 
is still in its 'quadruped ' state." Industry 
seems to be growing more and more quad- 
rupedal continually. And it is coming more 
and more to resemble, not the "quad- 
ruped" that chews the cud, but the 
"quadruped " that roots. We accept the 
estimate of Ian MacLaren: "Money-making 
has two sides: one is very ignoble, where an 
immortal being toils and scrapes and grasps 



SHARP BARGAINS 51 

and hoards, simply that he may possess; 
one is entirely noble, where one strives that 
he may provide. What heroism may be 
hidden behind buying and selling, bargain- 
ing and speculating! Where a weary, 
anxious man is ever thinking of a woman 
who must not know want, of boys who must 
have their chance in life, one forgives him 
his carefulness" (The Potter s Wheel, p. 46). 

Jacob lived to see that all the "sharp bar- 
gains" which men may make, wherein any- 
body is intentionally defrauded, and wherein 
the conscience accuses of wrong, are "bad 
bargains." Jacob, we are told, became the 
father of the faithful, but it was not through 
the law of primogeniture nor from his sharp- 
ness, but because he had a new heart given 
him and a new name in token. The new 
heart which Jacob received in answer to his 
wrestling prayer was witness of the change 
which had taken place in his character, by 
which the "supplanter" was transformed into 
"a prince of God," and the new name "Israel" 
was the evidence that the change in his life 
was from above, and not from the earth. It 
was when his foothold upon earth was "sup- 



52 ABOUT MONEY 

planted" and he held fast his unknown and 
heavenly wrestler that the victory was ob- 
tained. So it is possible for even a "sharp- 
er," a stock speculator, or a gambler to be 
transformed into a child of God, but it will 
come, and can come, only from outside and 
above himself. 



^be poov poor 



THE POOR POOR 

There are not many people who really 
enjoy being poor; not many who prefer to 
be poor. The people who talk of the 
advantages of poverty are mostly those who 
are no longer poor if they ever were poor. 
No doubt there are advantages in being 
poor, but it is a difficult thing to get poor 
people to see these advantages, or rich 
people to accept them, as they easily could. 
This is not to say that one cannot be poor 
and at the same time be respectable, or be 
good, or enjoy living. We have heard 
people say that they "enjoyed poor health"; 
they did not mean just that, but that they 
endured poor health with fortitude. So 
some people endure poverty with good 
grace. 

I think it is true also that the little which 
some people have gives them more comfort 
and pleasure than what some other people 
get from their great possessions. Whether 
a thing is little or much depends largely 

55 



56 ABOUT MONEY 

upon whose eyes look at It. Mr. Carnegie 
says of the first week's wages he ever 
earned: "Many millions of dollars have 
since passed through my hands, but the 
genuine satisfaction I had from that one 
dollar and twenty cents outweighs any sub- 
sequent pleasure in money-getting." 

No doubt poverty has its advantages, but 
they are forced, not chosen, as few people 
choose to be poor rather than to be rich. 
I do remember having heard of a good 
Methodist minister who found great com- 
fort in a hymn, something like this: 

"No foot of land do I possess 
In all this dreary wilderness." 

A rich man is said to have taken pity on 
him, and to have given him a farm, and 
then he could not sing his favorite hymn 
any longer. But he would rather have his 
song than to own the farm, so he brought 
back the deed and gave up the farm. But 
this was a good while ago. And perhaps 
the farm wasn't worth a real good song. 
Some songs are worth more than some 
farms. Maybe the farm wasn't improved, 



THE POOR POOR 57 

or was in an unhealthy locality, for there 
are few persons in our times who would 
actually refuse a good farm well located. 

And so we say there are few persons, if 
any, who would rather be poor. For, to be 
poor brings a great many inconveniences 
and deprives of a great many advantages 
that riches can give. One of our living 
humorists has said in sober, somber truth: 
"There have been a good many funny 
things said and written about hardupish- 
ness, but the reality is not funny for all that. 
It is not funny to have to haggle over pen- 
nies. It isn't funny to be thought mean and 
stingy. It isn't funny to be shabby, and to 
be ashamed of your address. No, there is 
nothing at all fanny in poverty — to the 
poor. It is hell upon earth to a sensitive 
man; and many a brave gentleman, who 
would have faced the labors of Hercules, has 
had. his heart broken by its petty miseries." 
Poverty not only embitters many lives and 
deprives of many advantages, that the rich 
enjoy, but also hinders from doing a great 
deal of good that one might do if he had 
the money to use. There are many, many 



58 ABOUT MONEY 

ways in which a person who has money can 
do g-ood where one without money cannot. 
The man without money has the added 
misery of seeing open doors that he cannot 
enter. The same is true of some churches 
in their work. 

It is not only a great inconvenience to be 
poor, it is often far worse, even a curse; not 
a curse sent by the Lord, but a curse 
brought upon oneself, or that comes through 
misfortune. But, boys, don't you know that 
there is something a great deal worse than 
to be poor? "What is it?" do you ask. 
Why, it is to be mean and thoroughly bad 
in thought and speech and act. That is a 
great deal worse — a thousand times worse — 
than being poor. I am afraid many people 
do not think so. 

And, girls, don't you know that there is 
something a great deal worse than being 
bad, bad in thought and word and deed? 
"What is it?" you may ask. Why, it is to be 
bad and poor — bad and poor. To be bad 
and poor is a great deal worse than to be 
simply bad, or simply poor. To be bad and 
poor is to be doubly poor; and to be doubly 



THE POOR POOR 59 

poor Is far worse than to be merely poor. 
"Every drunken vagabond or lazy idler sup- 
ported by alms bestowed by wealthy people 
is a source of moral infection to a neighbor- 
hood" [The Gospel of Wealth, p. 70). You 
all can see now whom we mean by the term 
"the poor poor"; they are the doubly poor, 
the bad poor, or, as some one has called 
them, "the devil's poor." 

The Bible gives us a definition of the poor 
poor. It says of them, they are the "foolish" ; 
they "know not the way of the Lord, 
nor the judgment of their God" (and they 
do not want to know); "they swear falsely; 
. . . They have refused to receive cor- 
rection: they have made their faces harder 
than a rock" ("brazen faced," we would say); 
"they have refused to return." Is not this a 
plain and true description of a thoroughly 
bad person, one who has become hardened 
by continued wrong-doing. The prophet 
says, "Surely these are poor," and I say 
these are the poor poor, the doubly poor, or 
the devil's poor. Certainly they are not the 
Lord's poor. 

How came they to be the poor poor? 



6o ABOUT MONEY 

This is a question not easy to answer. In 
many cases the answer is known only to 
God. 

With some it may be owing to the treat- 
ment they have received from their fellow 
beings, or from the rich. It is a sad thing 
that some who were once the Lord's poor 
have become the devil's poor, and they say 
sometimes that the treatment they got from 
the rich made them so. There are thou- 
sands of men who attribute their present 
unfortunate condition to the alleged fact 
that they have not had a fair chance in the 
struggle for existence and because the big 
accumulations of money in the hands of a 
few have dammed up the stream of oppor- 
tunity. This may be said only in excuse for 
their condition, not in justification of it. 

Often persons have become the poor poor 
because they have wasted their means, they 
have been extravagant when they should 
have been economical and frugal; in such 
cases the fault cannot be laid on somebody 
else. Some live beyond their income, want- 
ing to keep up with their neighbor who may 
have five times their wages, and thus they 



THE POOR POOR 6i 

are tempted to do bad things, to become 
dishonest, to lie, cheat and steal, and so 
from being poor they come to be the poor 
poor. 

Others become such because of misfor- 
tunes or calamities which throw them into 
the midst of conditions and associations 
where they can hardly help becoming the 
poor poor. It is no wonder that children 
brought up in certain surroundings go to the 
bad. They don't have far to go and have 
many helps in going. 

One of the greatest or the greatest one 
cause for this double poverty is intemper- 
ance. Drink makes many a man the poor- 
est of the poor. Drink is apt to make one 
poor in purse. I have heard of a person 
who drank up a good farm, a yoke of oxen, 
a flock of sheep, the household furniture, 
his good clothes; then he was poor indeed, 
and thus by drink became poor in character 
also, and then he was doubly poor. Can 
anyone be poorer than the poor drunkard? 
He is the devil's own poor. 

But, boys and girls, Jesus came to save 
even the poor poor, the doubly poor, the 



62 ABOUT MONEY 

poorest of the poor. He became poor him- 
self — not doubly poor, but poor — to do so; 
and no one, I think, is so doubly poor as to 
be beyond His reach. He has saved many 
of those who were in direst poverty and in 
deepest sin. 

There was the case of Jerry McAuley, 
who said of himself: "I was a river thief, 
and a drunkard, and a low-lived fellow. But 
Jesus, in answer to prayer, changed me in 
character from the crown of my head to the 
soles of my feet." Much the same is the 
testimony left by Bendigo, the prize fighter: 
"I had fought twenty-four regular battles. 
I was in prison for my crimes, and then it 
was that I was made a new man by the 
power of the Lord Jesus, and have remained 
so ever since." Jesus is able to save to the 
uttermost, and none have gone so far into 
the double poverty of want and shame as to 
be beyond His grace and power to help and 
save. 



Zhc poor IRicb 



THE POOR RICH 

In the very last book of the Bible we are 
told about some people who think that 
money, or lands, or stocks, or merchandise, 
which they call their own, make them rich. 
Probably you think that a man who has a 
hundred thousand dollars is a rich man; he 
may be, and he may not be. I have heard 
of people who had a great deal of money, 
and who, nevertheless, died in great want — 
in dire want of more money. No person is 
rich in a high and true sense who is bad. 
Jesus said upon one occasion (and the para- 
ble of the rich man who built larger barns 
to store up the fruits of his fields was based 
upon it), "A man's life consisteth not in the 
abundance of the things which he possess- 
eth." He may say, as the rich man of 
this parable said to his soul, "Soul, thou 
hast much goods laid up for many years"; 
or as a man said in the last book of the 
Bible, "I am rich, and have need of noth- 
ing," and at the same time be "miserable 

65 



66 ABOUT MONEY 

and poor," as relates to the truest riches — 
the riches that rust cannot corrode, thieves 
cannot steal, or the soul cannot be parted 
from. These are the poor rich. 

I know a good man who lives in a large 
eastern city, who, for fifty years or more, 
has been connected with an institution that 
cares for the children of the poor and desti- 
tute. For much of this time he has been 
the missionary of that institution, and as 
such he has gone into the homes where 
only poverty, cruelty and sin abound, seek- 
ing thus to rescue the children in these 
homes and to save them to honest, respect- 
able and useful lives. Thousands of chil- 
dren have been saved by means of that 
institution from lives of sin and have grown 
up to be good citizens. Many rich people 
have been, and still are, the patrons of that 
noble institution. This good man of whom 
I speak has come to know many of these 
rich patrons as well as a great many of the 
poor. Well, he said to me one time, "Do 
you know, while we have missionaries to 
the poor I think there ought to be mis- 
sionaries to the rich, for many of them are 



THE POOR RICH 67 

so poor in what are the truest riches." And 
I suspect he was about right, although these 
rich people would probably not relish being 
told they are poor. It is possible that 
some whom we count very, very rich are 
very, very poor. Frederick W. Robertson, 
one of the greatest preachers who ever 
lived, once said in a sermon: "Many a man 
would have done good if he had not had 
a superabundance of the means of doing it. 
Many a spiritual giant is buried under 
mountains of gold." 

Do not fancy that we are talking against 
riches, for we are not, but are warning 
against the notion that houses and lands 
and money necessarily make anybody rich. 
Though it seems a contradiction, yet it is 
true that one may be rich and yet be poor, 
just as one may be poor and still be rich. 
As there are the poor poor, so there are the 
poor rich — they are the rich who are with- 
out God. Let me explain this further. 

One may be rich in purse, but poor in 
character. You ask, "What is character?" 
or "What makes character?" Fine clothes 
do not make character. A beautiful face 



68 ABOUT MONEY 

and polished manners, while they are much 
to be admired, do not make character. 
Some people who are very handsome are 
also very wicked. The living in an elegant 
house, with luxurious furnishings and 
belongings, and on the best street of the 
city doesn't make character; far from it. 
Character is not something about us, as big- 
ness or smallness, stoutness or leanness. 
Size and weight and strength and health do 
not make character. Character may exist 
apart from any or all these desirable quali- 
ties. Education does not invariably make 
character, for there are educated and 
accomplished villains. Reputation is not 
character, though some folks think it is. 
Reputation is what others think of us, but 
they do not always think correctly. Some 
persons who have fair reputations and are 
thought to be good people lead bad lives. 
And some people who are truly good are, 
for a time at least, thought to be wicked or 
unworthy. Character is what we are, what 
we know ourselves to be, and what we know 
that God knows us to be. Otie has said, 
"Character is what we are in the dark, while 



THE POOR RICH 69 

reputation is what we are in the light." 
Good character is right Hving. A person 
who always aims to do as nearly right as he 
knows has a good character. To find one's 
character we must go deeper than the 
clothes he wears; deeper than the skin; 
deeper than the house he lives in; deeper 
than the brain; we must go to what we call 
the heart. "Out of it," as the fountain head, 
the wise man says, "are the issues of life." 
Not all rich men have good hearts; some 
have, but others have vile and cruel hearts. 
And some rich men become rich by wrong 
and disgraceful and unjust means, in ways 
that bring misery and suffering to many. 
So that one maybe rich without being good, 
and, therefore, wanting in character though 
not lacking in money. 

One may have all the comforts and lux- 
uries that money can buy and still be poor. 
The riches which one may seek and gain, 
thinking they will make him happy, may be 
the source or cause of the greatest misery. 
This is not infrequently the case. One may 
live in great style, like a prince royal with 
every wish and desire that money can bring 



70 ABOUT MONEY 

gratified, and others may think him the hap- 
piest of mortals while he is all the time in 
the greatest discontent. A gentleman was 
once congratulating John Jacob Astor on his 
magnificent home, and implied that its 
owner must be a very happy man: '^ Happy ! 
ME happy !^' was the reply. Riches cannot 
give peace of mind; they cannot relieve the 
aching heart; but they can and often do 
give a great deal of unrest and anxious 
care. Stephen Girard once wrote to a 
friend: "I live like a galley-slave, constantly 
occupied, and often passing the night with- 
out sleeping. I am wrapped up in a laby- 
rinth of affairs, and worn out with cares. I 
do not value a fortune." "The man who 
has no money is poor,'' says one, "but one 
who has nothing but money is poorer than 
he." 

One may be rich as estimated by the 
arithmetic of earth, but poor as counted by 
the arithmetic of heaven—rich as the world 
counts wealth, poor as the Lord calculates 
riches. We may say of many a man, "He 
is very rich," and we may long to be like 
him; but heaven says, "He is poor, oh, so 



THE POOR RICH 71 

poor!" Dr. William Mathews says: "The 
poorest of all human beings is the man who 
is rich in gold, but intellectually and spiritu- 
ally bankrupt." 

And, too, one may be rich In the things 
that rot and rust, wear out and may be 
stolen, but poor in the things that thieves 
cannot take, that fire and flood cannot 
destroy, and that will not rust nor decay — 
rich in the things that fail, poor in the vir- 
tues that are imperishable. One of our 
essayists in speaking of the money king of 
Great Britain, who died years ago, says, 
"He was, withal, a little soul." Some rich 
men of our times seem to be without any 
soul. 

The poor rich, then, are they who with 
great capacity to do good in the wise and 
benevolent use of their wealth are content 
to live idle, luxurious, selfish and unfeeling 
lives, knowing naught of responsibility to 
mankind about them or to God above them. 
Of this kind of rich men President Hyde 
fitly asks, "What is the real nature of the 
idle rich? Precisely what do they amount 
to in the world?" and aptly and truly 



72 ABOUT MONEY 

answers: "To eat the bread that other men 
have toiled to plant, and reap, and trans- 
port, and cook, and serve; to wear the silk 
and woolen that other women have spun, 
and woven, and cut, and sewed; to lie in a 
couch that other hands have spread, and 
under a roof that other arms have reared; 
not that alone — for we all do as much — but 
to consume these things upon themselves 
with no sense of gratitude and fellowship 
toward toiling men and women who bring 
these gifts, with no strenuous effort to give 
back to them something as valuable and 
precious as that which they have given to 
us — that is the meanness and selfishness and 
sin and shame of wealth that is idle and 
irresponsible. Against riches as such, no 
sane man has a word to say. Against rich 
men who are idle and irresponsible, against 
rich women who are ungrateful and unserv- 
iceable, the moral insight cries out in right- 
eous indignation, and brands them as 
parasites receiving all, but giving nothing in 
return; gulping down the life-blood of their 
fellows without so much as a 'thank you' in 
return" (God's Ed^Lcat^on of Man, pp. "^^^ '^'S), 



THE POOR RICH 73 

My young friends do not despise riches 
nor rich men as such, but do despise to 
ever get a penny in a bad, or wrong, or 
unjust way, and do despise to ever use a 
penny in a mean and purely selfish way. To 
quote again from a writer already mentioned 
(Dr. Mathews): "Money is a good thing, of 
which every man should try to secure 
enough to avoid dependence upon others, 
either for his bread or opinions; but it is 
not so good a thing that, to win it, one 
should crawl in the dust, stoop to a mean or 
dishonorable action, or give his conscience 
a single pang." 



XTbe IRicb poor 



THE RICH POOR 

We said in speaking of the poor rich that 
one may be rich in purse and poor in char- 
acter, and the opposite is true, that one may 
be rich in character and poor in purse. 
Thus it is possible for one to be rich even 
while he is poor. And so, too, out of the 
riches of character, or the riches that good 
deeds and kind acts constitute, it is possible 
for the poor to make others rich. This is 
the meaning of the Scripture, wherein the 
apostle speaks of the disciples of the Lord, 
"As poor, yet making many rich; as having 
nothing and yet possessing all things." 
This seems a plain contradiction; and it 
could not be true that one may be rich even 
while he is poor were it not that there are 
different kinds of riches. It is the fact that 
there are different kinds of riches that 
enable many persons to become the rich 
poor, who are sometimes called "the Lord's 
poor." 

77 



yZ ABOUT MONEY 

In speaking of the rich poor we are deal- 
ing with what has been since the days of 
the Psalmist one of the most difficult of all 
subjects. Why the good are so often poor — 
live and die poor — is a most perplexing 
problem. No doubt there are reasons for 
this, but these reasons are surely known 
only to God. Certainly it is not because 
God orders it so. Perhaps it is better for 
some of us to be poor than it would be for 
us to be rich, only we do not want other 
people to tell us this. But perhaps if we 
could only see deeper into the mystery of 
this life we would be far less inclined to 
complain of our lot than we often are. 
Perhaps, too, we do more work for the Lord 
than we would if we were rich. I frequently 
hear people wish they were rich for the 
good they could then do with money. But 
I have known several cases where persons 
were earnest and devoted workers in the 
church when they were comparatively poor, 
yet when they prospered and became well- 
to-do they were not nearly so much inter- 
ested in the church, and did very little work 
for the Lord. I wonder if this is not gener- 



THE RICH POOR 79 

ally the case. Perhaps this is the reason 
why the Psalmist warns us, "If riches 
increase, set not your heart upon them." 

And then, no doubt, the poor are kept 
from many temptations and anxieties that 
the rich encounter. Perhaps so, though 
almost any of us would be willing to accept 
the wealth of the rich — anxieties, cares, 
risks and all. To be sure the poor have 
their temptations, anxieties and cares, and 
they are many and fierce and harassing; 
but so have the rich theirs, and possibly 
they are more numerous, fiercer and harder 
to endure. The temptations of the rich are 
peculiar, as are those of the poor, and of 
each class different and often misunderstood 
by the other. 

Not every person who is good, industrious 
and saving becomes rich. Generally such a 
person does, but not always. I have known 
good people who always worked hard, 
never took a vacation, did not spend money 
in bad habits, and were economical, and yet 
they did not become rich. Why is this the 
case? No doubt God knows why; certainly 
we cannot know unmistakably in many 



8o ABOUT MONEY 

cases. We may correctly surmise the rea- 
sons in some cases. 

We may know some things which have to 
do with poverty. For instance, we do know 
that some good people are not good man- 
agers, they do not look out for the "pen- 
nies,'' and so they do not have the "pounds" 
to care for. They may be wasteful and 
extravagant in a small way, but which, with 
a small income, keeps them under the har- 
row of being "hard up." They are often 
too much influenced in their manner of liv- 
ing by their neighbors, and so all the while 
are on the verge of that dependence which 
misfortune precipitates. 

We know well that many good people 
undertake to do what they have little or no 
training for, and so under this disadvantage 
they "go to the wall." They mean well, but 
do not plan well, when it is the wise plan- 
ning more than the well meaning that 
brings business success; they are not as 
careful and wise as they must be to succeed 
in these times. As a rule careful training 
for any pursuit never was more imperative 
than now. What would answer for our 



THE RICH POOR 8i 

fathers will not serve for us; and the future 
will make still higher demands as the con- 
ditions of success. These well-meaning but 
illy-qualified people, would not wrong any- 
body, nor take what is not theirs in any 
way, but with all their excellent traits they 
do not "get on," as we say. A man who has 
won his way up from poverty to a place in 
the front rank of millionaires has recently 
said, "Business methods have changed; 
good-will counts for less and less." The 
latter clause is the saddest admission of the 
commercial world to-day. This fact, if it be 
a fact, that "good-will counts for less and 
less" all the while, is perhaps the ground 
for the question which is frequently raised, 
"Can business be conducted on Christian 
principles and succeed?" Of course it can; 
we know it is so conducted in many cases, 
but it must be truly Christian, in both method 
and motive, and it must be the business that 
brings to it all needed qualifications and 
competence. The failure of many a truly 
Christian business man is owing to some- 
thing else than to his Christian principles. 
He may be wanting in sagacity, tact, prepa- 



82 ABOUT MONEY 

ration, or other qualities of the successful 
career. God does not work miracles in the 
business world to save His own dear children 
from consequences of their incapacity. But 
not always is the failure of a Christian busi- 
ness man traceable to incapacity or lack of 
training, or rashness, or anything else that 
we can discover. The reasons are beyond 
our finding out. Fortuity often seems to 
have a place in the adversities of life. 

And then we must not lose sight of the 
fact that in the progress of society many 
good people are left behind in the race 
through no fault of their own. Their abil- 
ity to work and provide for their household 
has been superseded by machinery, and 
they are too advanced in years to find their 
adjustment to the new order of things. 
This is constantly coming to pass and is a 
most pathetic spectacle. Then, combina- 
tions in most or many industries and depart- 
ment establishments have forced many 
reputable individual dealers to the wall and 
made independent enterprises well-nigh 
impossible. And, too, there are always 
those whose health breaks down under the 



THE RICH POOR 83 

strain of the struggle of life, or misfortunes 
come upon them so that, while good people, 
they live and die poor. 

It is also true that some good people are 
not careful to avoid going in debt, and are 
thereby hampered all the while, and in con- 
sequence remain poor all their days. Boys, 
let me urge upon you, particularly, that you 
resolve sternly, in youth, never to go in 
debt; and do not go in debt if you can pos- 
sibly avoid it, and generally one can. To 
avoid debt, live within your income, how- 
ever small it may be, and spend money 
when you have earned it, not before. 
Whatever you may earn, spend less, and 
you will sometime be rich and in a way that 
your riches will be an honor to you. Do 
not go in debt. One keen observer has 
said, "It is difficult for a man who is con- 
stantly in debt to be truthful." Poor Rich- 
ard' s Al7nanach.2i^ this proverb, "The second 
vice is lying, the first is running in debt"; 
and also this, "Lying rides on Debt's back." 

There are other persons who, though 
good at heart, are easy-going, shiftless and 
without "snap" or force of character — 



84 ABOUT MONEY 

"ne'er-do-wells" — and so do not prosper; 
while others are snappish, crabbed and of 
repelling rather than attractive manner, so 
that, though good people at heart, they do 
not draw other people to themselves or to 
their business, and do not succeed. It was 
once asked of a celebrated seamen's 
preacher whether his son-in-law were a 
Christian or not? "I doubt if he really is," 
was his reply, "but he is a very sweet sin- 
ner." Truly good and Christian people 
differ very much among themselves. Some 
are not of a sweet and amiable disposition, 
though they are severely honest and just 
in all their dealings. This may be the 
reason why they remain poor. Perhaps we 
have not recognized the graces of cordiality 
and cheerfulness as factors of success as 
much as we should. 

There are still other persons who really 
do not care to be rich, and who could never 
consent to become rich in the way that 
some people think one only can become 
rich in these times, and while so many in 
the world are poor. They would rather do 
without all the good and nice things that 



THE RICH POOR 85 

money can buy than to get money in such 
ways as some rich people have gotten their 
money; and so would you, I hope. Riches, 
as they look at them, "come high," and they 
are not willing to "pay the price." Some 
rich people, we must not forget, obtain their 
wealth in strict conformity to the laws of 
truth and right — by Christian methods. 

And there are still others who are so con- 
stituted, or built, as we say, that they would 
rather not acquire a fortune, but prefer to 
use up what they get as they go along; and 
they are not spendthrifts either. They 
could easily become rich if they would 
resolve to do so, but they take a greater sat- 
isfaction in seeing and knowing while they 
live the good their money can do. There 
are more of this kind of poor than we know 
about, for they do not get their names into 
the papers like some of the poor rich do. 
They build a monument for themselves 
while they live, but it is not one of marble, 
or granite, or the kind set up in the ceme- 
tery. They know of a worthy young man 
or woman who is trying to get an educa- 
tion, and they give a lift. They learn of a 



86 ABOUT MONEY 

struggling church, and they help that. 
They see a city's need, and they establish a 
library or a hospital — sources of light and 
knowledge, and of relief from suffering for 
generations of mankind. They believe that 
a man should administer his estate himself 
and for the good of his fellow beings in his 
own lifetime, and they act upon it. The 
number of these is constantly increasing. 
Who shall say that this is not a good way for 
one to keep poor and make sure of dying 
poor if he is convinced that he ought? If this 
were done oftener many a valuable estate 
would be saved from the hands of unprin- 
cipled mien, and would become a source of 
perpetual blessing to the world. The news- 
papers told us a short time ago of lawyers' 
fees to the amount of two millions of dollars 
for settling an estate in the West. The term 
the "gospel of w^ealth" came into use many 
years ago, and has as its chief expounder 
Mr. Andrew Carnegie, whose position among 
the influential men of our times entitles 
his words to the consideration of rich and 
poor. "The gospel of wealth," he says, "but 
echoes Christ's words. It calls upon the 



THE RICH POOR 87 

millionaire to sell all that he hath and give 
it in the highest and best form to the poor 
by administering his estate himself for the 
good of his fellows, before he is called upon 
to lie down and rest upon the bosom of 
Mother Earth. So doing he will approach 
his end, no longer the ignoble hoarder of 
useless millions, poor, very poor indeed, in 
money, but rich, very rich, twenty times a 
millionaire still, in the affection, gratitude 
and admiration of his fellow men. . . . This 
much is sure: against such riches as these 
no bar will be found at the gates of Para- 
dise" {North American Review, Dec. 1889). 
And in his latest book, The Ejnpire of 
Business, he says, "The only noble use of 
surplus wealth is this: That it be regarded 
as a sacred trust, to be administered by its 
possessor, into whose hands it flows, for the 
highest good of the people." 

We have been describing those whom the 
world calls poor, but in reality they are 
often the rich; despite their poverty they 
are wealthy. The old meaning, now no 
longer given to the word wealth, is "well- 
being," a term inappropriate when applied 



88 ABOUT MONEY 

to the possessions of many a rich man. Mr. 
Ruskin once said of certain rich men, their 
wealth should be called their "ill-th," 
because it is not "well," but "ill" with their 
souls. This reminds us of what Poor Richard 
says of the vendue of fineries and knick- 
knacks, "You call them goods; but if you 
do not take care they will prove evils to 
some of you." Often it is the case that the 
poor who are rich only in faith and good 
works, are the truly wealthy. It is well with 
their souls no matter what 'their bank 
account may be or may not be. And so 
out of their well-being, though poor, they 
have enriched others and the world. The 
choicest and most valuable of all earth's 
precious treasures belong to them. 

We may appropriately ask. What is the 
true measure of the value of things? Is it 
not, in brief, in their capacity to satisfy? 
And how much gold, pray, does it require 
to satisfy the man who counts on money to 
fulfil the desires of his mind? Is it not 
always "more, more, more," up into the 
millions, to any who expect that money can 
satisfy? The things that truly satisfy, and 



THE RICH POOR 89 

satisfy most, are beyond all price — are inval- 
uable, that is, cannot be estimated. Among 
them are these: wisdom, truth, a good 
name, a righteous life. Who can appraise 
these at their full value? The wise man of 
old attempted to describe the worth of the 
first of those things which make up the 
wealth of the rich poor: "Happy is the 
man that getteth understanding: For the 
merchandise of it is better than the mer- 
chandise of silver, and the gain thereof than 
fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: 
and all the things thou canst desire are not 
to be compared unto her." These — wisdom, 
truth, a good name, a righteous life — satisfy; 
and these make up the unfailing riches of 
the Lord's poor. 

"Among all the services of adversity," 
says Ian MacLaren, "surely the best is this, 
that it teaches us at last the difference 
between the goods we hold in barns and 
those that are stored in the soul." This 
world has never been without its rich poor; 
and their gifts have ever been the most pre- 
cious benefactions to the human family. 
The great fact which they ever proclaim is 



90 ABOUT MONEY 

that money is not essential to true riches. 
"PhilHps Brooks, Thoreau, Garrison, Emer- 
son, Beecher, Agassiz were rich without 
money," declares a popular writer. "They 
saw the splendor in the flower, the glory in 
the grass, books in running brooks, sermons 
in stones, and good in everything. They 
knew that the man who owns the landscape 
seldom paid the taxes on it. . . . They 
knew that man could not live by estates, 
dollars and bread alone, and that if he could 
he would only be an animal. They believed 
that the higher life demands a higher food" 
{Architects of Fate, p. 246). 

And how the Bible abounds in examples 
of the Lord's poor! Jesus is to be named 
first of all among the rich poor. He was 
rich, yet became poor, so poor! He was 
born in a stable; He had "no place to lay 
His head"; He was buried in a borrowed 
grave! Yet, out of His poverty the world is 
made rich. The gospels contain the record 
of a poor widow who cast into the treasury 
of the temple "two mites which make a far- 
thing." Small though her gift was, so small 
that it seems scarcely worth while mention- 



THE RICH POOR 91 

ing it at all, yet our Lord declared that it 
was more than the large offerings of the 
rich. In her "two mites" all after ages are 
enriched. The apostles of Jesus were poor; 
they were fishermen, tent-makers, slaves 
and working men and women. "They came 
from fishing villages, from little homes 
among the hills, from back streets in great 
cities. Nobody knew them. Nobody ever 
heard of them before. . . . And poor and 
despised and ill-treated though they were, 
they made the world rich by the story they 
told." Out of their poverty we, to-day, are 
made rich with invaluable and enduring 
riches. 



Zhc IRtcb IRtcb 



THE RICH RICH 

Two things are said of a certain man 
whose name is mentioned in one of the gos- 
pels, namely, that he was rich and that he 
was a disciple of Jesus. In another place in 
the Bible we are told of this same man that 
he was a "good" and a "just" man. It was 
this good and just man, Joseph of Arima- 
thea, who, after the body of Jesus was taken 
down from the cross, assisted by other dis- 
ciples, tenderly and lovingly prepared the 
Lord's body for burial, and then laid it in 
his own new tomb, hewn out of the rock in 
his garden. This man had possessions, and 
was also rich in character. In one of these 
talks we said that some people are doubly 
poor, that they are both poor and bad. 
This Joseph who is described in the gos- 
pels, was doubly rich — he had money and 
was good; he was truly a wealthy man. I 
am very glad that there was one rich man 
among the disciples. The fact that there 
was one of the disciples who had his own 

95 



96 ABOUT MONEY 

new and rock-hewn tomb, "wherein never 
man lay," helps to make the evidence more 
convincing that it was the Lord and not 
some other person who rose again from the 
dead. It shows also that riches do not 
exclude from discipleship to Jesus. We 
may say, not of Joseph alone, but of all 
persons who are good and rich, that they 
are doubly rich, or that they are the rich 
rich. 

Such men have lived all along through 
the past, and such men are now living. 
They are the men who have gotten great 
wealth and who have used it or a large part 
of it in ways of doing good. Such persons 
are, in this respect at least, the doubly rich. 
A rich man may at the same time be a good 
man, and for such a rich man to use his 
riches in the way that he thinks is best is 
better no doubt than it would be for him to 
turn it over to anybody else or to give it all 
to the poor. It is true Jesus said to one 
rich and influential young man, "Sell what- 
soever thou hast, and give to the poor," but 
this was said not to a rich rich, but to a poor 
rich, young man — said to a man who 



THE RICH RICH 97 

"trusted" In his riches, and whose riches 
kept him from becoming His disciple. Many 
a rich man is making a far better use of his 
money than anybody else could for him. If 
the property of a rich man could be taken 
from him by the law and given into the 
hands of a philanthropist, an editor, or a 
minister to manage in the interest of 
"humanity," the probability is that there 
would not be a cent of it left at the end of 
five years (Mathews). "The rich Chris- 
tian," says President Hyde, "is God's finest 
masterpiece in the world to-day." 

The rich rich are those who use their 
money in such a way that it becomes a 
source of good to their fellow beings, often 
of perpetual and increasing benefit to man- 
kind. A rich man in California gave 
$10,000,000 to found a university on the 
Pacific slope, and provided munificently for 
its continuance. That and other kindred 
institutions planted in a similar spirit will 
be a blessing to unnumbered young people 
for all time to come. A rich eastern family 
established a school of the highest order at 
Nashville, Tennessee, for the colored youth 



98 ABOUT MONEY 

of the southland. One rich man gave a mil- 
lion dollars to build and equip a library at 
Baltimore, Maryland. Other rich men have 
done the same thing for other large cities, 
and some for smaller cities. This is a most 
excellent use of riches. Another rich man 
gave a million dollars to the American Mis- 
sionary Association to help establish schools 
and carry on missionary work among the 
neglected peoples in our own land; and 
other rich men have given immense sums 
of money for missionary work in foreign 
lands. Who has not heard the name of 
William E. Dodge? He was one of the 
doubly rich men — rich in the things of this 
world and heir of eternal life. He was not 
only a good man but became rich and used 
his money to do good. He gave liberally 
to help many worthy objects — missions, 
schools, charitable institutions and the like. 
He was one of the rich rich and, while he 
has gone, his example is inclining many 
other rich men to do likewise. They see 
from his life and influence that it pays in 
the noblest sense thus to use one's wealth. 
Wealth to such a man means "well-being" 



THE RICH RICH 99 

to multitudes of the earth. Another rich 
man yet with us has given hundreds of 
thousands of money to colleges and schools 
in many places, east, west, north and south, 
and given it in such a way that it has 
enlarged his gifts many-fold. He is one of 
the rich rich. The rich rich are not all 
men. A young woman of our times, whose 
name it is not necessary to mention, has 
employed her wealth, not in a "queenly" 
but in a Christlike way; has given a ministry 
to the suffering and needy and to the bet- 
terment of the world, which is Christlike in 
its discernment, discrimination and tender- 
ness. She, too, is one of the rich rich, the 
doubly rich, whom this nation delights to 
honor. 

You would like to know how these came 
to be rich. In some instances their riches 
came by inheritance, perhaps, but generally, 
or in many instances, the persons who get 
rich and remain so and are numbered among 
the doubly rich, got their possessions in 
ways and by processes which are still open 
to others. Many of them, we know, began 
with little or nothing, and they moved 

l.ofC. 



loo ABOUT MONEY 

upward step by step until they came into 
large possessions. Generally there are 
three principal rounds in the ladder whose 
top is wealth: 

The first round is hard and honest work 
at whatever one can do the best. It requires 
some search and study often to find out 
what that is. But if one follows the clues 
that come as he goes along he can usually 
find out what he is best adapted to do. 
Finding that out, then let him make the 
most careful preparation possible, and then, 
more than all else, work. When asked for 
the secret of his success in life a celebrated 
artist replied, "I have no secret but hard 
work." 

It is not necessary that one has even a 
"start" in life in order to succeed. Hun- 
dreds and thousands of men have won large 
fortunes with little or nothing to start on — 
but they worked. They were not of those 
who waited for the iron to heat, but made 
the iron hot by striking. The history of 
many a large fortune is a story of small 
beginnings and persistent and determinate 
effort. A gentleman of my acquaintance, 



THE RICH RICH loi 

not to mention examples that the books 
give, who is to-day a contractor of railroads 
and other large engineering projects, and 
is known beyond our nation's boundaries, 
began, I have been told, as water boy to the 
workmen on one of the first railroads built 
in the West. He told me once that a man 
only saved what he used for the good of 
mankind. Another gentleman of my 
acquaintance, a prominent banker and pro- 
prietor of other industries, got his start in 
life by selling receipts for a simple and useful 
commodity, often necessitating absence for 
weeks at a time from his widowed mother's 
side. In both these instances, as in many 
others I have known, work — persevering, 
unflinching, unfastidious work — was the first 
qualification of a successful career. So it is 
generally. 

The second round in the ladder, whose 
top leans on wealth, is saving habits, or 
economy of one's earnings. We would 
make the emphasis upon the "habit" of sav- 
ing rather than upon the amount of one's 
savings. As it is the minutes that make the 
hours, so it is the cents that make the dol- 



102 ABOUT MONEY 

lars. Take care of the minutes and the 
hours will take care of themselves, In like 
manner take care of the cents and the dol- 
lars will not need special care. A person 
who spends as much money as he earns 
every week will never become rich by such 
a process. But if a person manages to keep 
back, or to save something every week, no 
matter how small the amount^ the begin- 
nings of his fortune are already made. 
"The beginning of a deposit, however 
small, in a savings bank," is the statement 
of one of our thoughtful men, "may be 
regarded as the crisis of many a moral des- 
tiny." If a person manages to save back 
something from what he earns, and puts it 
where it will earn more, he will, in time, be 
well to do, will have money with which to 
do good. "Remember," '^^y^ Poor Richard, 
"that money is of the prolific, generating 
nature. Money can beget money and its 
offspring can beget more, and so on." It is 
not what is earned, so much as what is saved, 
that counts in the accumulation of wealth. 
Recent utterances of Mr. Carnegie to rail- 
road men embody valuable counsel to every 



THE RICH RICH 103 

young man: "What all of you should strive 
for is a competence. . . . No man 
should be happy without it, if it be 
within reach, and I urge all of you to 
save a part of your earnings these pros- 
perous days and put it in savings banks at 
interest, or better still, buy a home with it." 
"Out of every dollar earned save twenty-five 
cents. Save seventy-five if you can, but 
never less than twenty-five," is one of the 
rules for success given by Mr. Russell Sage. 
These two points are admirably summed 
up by Benjamin Franklin in that quaint, 
old, but wise little volume, Poor Richard' s 
Almanac, as follows: "In short, the way 
to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the 
way to the market. It depends chiefly on 
two words, industry and frugality; that is, 
waste neither time nor money, but make 
the best use of both. Without industry and 
frugality nothing will do, and with them, 
everything. He that gets all he can hon- 
estly and saves all he gets (necessary 
expenses excepted) will certainly become 
rich, if that Being who governs the world, 
to whom all should look for a blessing on 



I04 ABOUT MONEY 

their honest endeavors, doth not, in his wise 
providence, otherwise determine." 

This last sentence leads us to say, finally, 
that one other thing is necessary in order to 
become truly rich, or doubly rich, and that 
is the ble^.sing of God. Again we quote 
from Poor Richard: "After all, do not 
depend too much upon your own industry 
and frugality and prudence, though excel- 
lent things, for they may all be blasted 
without the blessing of heaven; and there- 
fore ask that blessing humbly, and be not 
uncharitable to those that at present seem 
to want (lack?) it, but comfort and help 
them. Remember, Job suffered and was 
afterward prosperous." A person is poor, 
at least is only half rich, no matter how 
much money he may have, who does not 
take God into the account in all his get- 
tings. Without a recognition of his stew- 
ardship to God all the possessions of the 
rich leave them among the poor rich. 

God does most wonderfully honor His 
promises to those who take Him into their 
confidence and share with Him their in- 
crease. A gentleman of my acquaintance 



THE RICH RICH 105 

has a peculiar kind of mathematical sciencCc 
In his mathematics ''^Ten 7ui7ttcs one equals 
eleven!' He says, and his statement is 
borne out by a large and increasing number 
of people, that only by practicing such 
mathematics has he been blessed with an 
enlarging possession. I knew a man who 
died a few years ago who was the most won- 
derful example of what God can do for one 
— one even in humble, obscure life — who 
seeks His guidance, that ever came to my 
notice. This man was a country farmer, 
and with no resources of getting money 
other than the soil of his, not large, farm. 
Over and beyond his living expenses and 
liberal support of the church where he was 
an honored member, this man, in his life- 
time, gave away to the work of his denomi- 
nation at large the sum of one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand dollars. And at his 
death he left another hundred thousand 
dollars to be applied in the same way; in all, 
a quarter of a million dollars — the proceeds 
of a farm — given to Christian work. Surely 
it paid him to take God into his partnership 
and to seek His blessing. In the midst of 



io6 ABOUT MONEY 

complaints that tilling the soil was unprofit- 
able and in a section of the country where 
other farmers failed and their farms were 
mortgaged, and some even sold on mortgage, 
this man prospered, and by the blessing of 
God upon his labors became rich, rich in 
purse and rich in faith and good works — one 
of the Lord's noblemen — and so in fulness 
of years he passed on to the enjoyment of 
the inheritance which he had laid up in 
heaven, heir and possessor of eternal life. 
Thus rises the rich rich man to his rewards. 
And so, before all else and above all else, 
seek the blessing and guidance of God in 
all plans and efforts to amass wealth. 



MAY 25 1903 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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